Disclaimer: This recipe is not for the squeamish.

I am currently in the process of doing this, so it's not theoretical. I have a huge jar of these bubbling away as we speak. I have done it before, too, and lived to tell the tale.

Ingredients:

1) Enough pickling cucumbers to fill a one gallon jar.
2) 3/4 cup salt
3) 2 quarts water (so as not to kill beneficial bacteria)
4) 2 bunches dill
5) an entire head of garlic
6) one packet of pickling spices
7) a few dried hot chilis (if you like that)
Rinse, but don't wash or scrub the cucumbers.

Separate the cloves of the garlic and semi-crush each one and remove the paper skin

Boil the water and salt in a pan.

Layer the cucumbers in the jar with dill and garlic and spice.

You may either cool the brine and pour it over, or add it hot.

Make sure your cucumbers are covered ENTIRELY - and if you need to, improvise something to keep them down. A ziploc bag filled with water will work, especially with a weight on top if its not heavy enough on its own.

Cover loosely with something like a clean dish towel.

Let nature take its course.

Check on them, and poke at them with a chopstick once a day to release any gas pockets.

If a bloom of mold begins on top, skim it off.

Brine will be cloudy - as it ought to be. This is just dead bacteria in suspension.

After about 4-7 days, depending on how pickled you want your pickles, cover loosely and place in the refrigerator. Let them cure for a few days to a week in the refrigerator. The cold will inhibit further fermentation.

You're done!

This is one of the oldest methods of preservation known to mankind, and while it doesn't necessarily live up to our current levels of "food safety" it sure makes tasty pickles.

The fermentation of the good bacteria creates lactic acid and a small bit of natural vinegar, which gives the pickles their flavour.

The colour will help you determine the "pickledness." Bright green is still barely pickled, darker olive green indicates doneness. Cut one in half, and if the colour is uniform from outside to in, the pickle is fully cured. If it is lighter in the middle, it is semi-cured.

Let taste be your guide.

You can (and I do) use an almost identical process to make sauerkraut. I add shredded carrot, juniper berries, and caraway seed. With sauerkraut, you should salt the cabbage directly, layer by layer - which will extract the cabbage juice, and only add brine if you need it to keep all the shredded cabbage covered.

My pickles have some peppers from my garden in the jar, which I haven't tried before, but I am hoping for some very unique pickled Hungarian peppers.

Happy pickling!

To those who are wary of the mold part and the leaving food out part for days, let me assure you that I was right with you when I watched my grandmother make these. Right up until I tasted the first one out of the refrigerator. I was immediately addicted, and I can't stand vinegar pickles anymore, because to me they lack the mellow, developed flavour that natural fermentation and curing provides.

Just as a reminder, lots of foods we eat use mold. Salami comes covered in white mold. Blue cheese is riddled with it. But I do concede that it can be disturbing to the modern sensibilities when we see it in a context which is unfamiliar, like a jar of briny pickles with a light layer of scum on top.